TW for Acid Attack
M.M. collapsed, knocked unconscious by her clarinet being turned into Poison Cooking, and Gokudera looked ready to copy her actions at the slightest provocation. Tsuna honestly couldn't blame her or him – just imagining something like the shift from a regular (?) clarinet to something as toxic as Bianchi's Poison Cooking happening inside his own mouth was more than enough to make him sick.
Or it could have been the stench of the Poison Cooking. That was just as likely.
"I'm glad you've defeated that greedy chit," said an unfamiliar voice from their left, and snapped Tsuna out of his nausea.
"Who's there?"
Approaching them was a man who had to be at least middle-aged, dressed in the Kokuyo uniform. Below his black bucket hat his hair was grey, and he looked feeble, around Tsuna's height. If it wasn't for the middle school uniform – something someone his age shouldn't have worn, like Mangusta in the Namimori Middle Uniform – Tsuna might have almost thought he was an older man who enjoyed hiking, because in one hand he carried a walking stick.
But there was something unpleasant about his smile that made Tsuna want to take a step back, and in the other hand he had an opened laptop.
"Now, now," he said, as if he was just an old man in the neighbourhood passing by. "Calm down. Your friends are my next targets, after all."
Tsuna's first instinct was to turn to check on Yamamoto and Gokudera. Both were still there, and though a little battered and messy from their run-in with the zombie wolves, still fine.
"It's probably hard for you to understand what I mean, so let me show you," said the old man, and pressed a button on his laptop. On the wall next to them, the light of projections was thrown up, showing two different scenes.
One showed Kyoko and Hana, speaking with each other about something. The other had Haru and Hotaru, walking in an empty street and discussing something over opened notebooks filled with neat writing. A few steps behind them I-Pin and Lambo followed, playing with Haru's gymnastic ribbons.
Both scenes were incredibly peaceful, and therefore incredibly out of place here. The discrepancy gave Tsuna a terrible feeling.
"Why are the girls on the screen?!" Tsuna demanded, because he was beginning to understand what he said about his friends being the next targets. And it wasn't a good understanding.
"You bastard," snarled Gokudera, just as quick on the update.
"Now, now," said the old man in the uniform, as a yellow-feathered bird fluttered down from the sky to perch comfortably on his shoulder. "I did tell you to stay calm. My name is Birds – and as the name implies, my hobby is keeping birds."
The screen shook, a little, like whoever was holding the camera had moved.
"My little darlings are transmitting these images to us through the cameras they have." He pressed a button. "And microphones, too."
"-needs to stop doing crazy things," Hana's voice synched with the movements of her lips. "Who falls off a roof? Who climbs on a roof?"
"It was a chimney," Kyoko corrected. Hana's expression made it clear that she didn't care about the difference, it was still crazy to her either way.
"I need a haircut," Hotaru said, after sweeping back her hair. "It's getting too long."
"Why not grow it out?" Haru suggested, flipping a page. "I think it would look really pretty."
Hotaru didn't look very enthused at the idea. "I don't like having long hair."
It was just an ordinary conversation they were having. Nothing special or exciting or weird, just average.
As if to mock the averageness of the scene, behind them appeared two spindly men, grotesque parodies of skeletal monsters that moved like spiders scrambling across a surface. It might have been funny, seeing them move the way they did while dressed in the Kokuyo uniform.
It wasn't funny now, not when they were lurking around the girls. Suddenly they were like spiders after prey, caught in a web.
"Oh? Have you noticed?" Birds said in his high-pitched, unpleasant way of speaking. "That's a pair of hitmen loyal to me. Their cute faces are the way they are because they were locked up in restraints for ten years without getting them removed. You see, back when they were free, they used to be brutal serial killers – the infamous Bloody Twins."
Tsuna had never heard of them, but he didn't dare say that out loud. It wouldn't have mattered, anyways. The Bloody Twins, grotesquely shaped bodies twisting into odd forms, flitted behind the girls, silent despite their odd limbs and movements.
"What are you planning to do to the girls?"
"Nothing," answered Birds, and that was the biggest lie Tsuna had ever heard in his life. "If you follow my orders, that is."
"Quit fucking around!" Gokudera's patience snapped, and he grabbed Birds by the front of his shirt. There was almost no resistance there, and the old man nearly hung from Gokudera's grip due to the difference in their heights. "They have nothing to do with this! Call them off or I'll tear you apart!"
In the face of the threat Birds cackled. "Better not touch me, boy," he sang. "After all, they're the ones who'll get it."
On-screen, a nailed finger brushed against Haru's collar, and a palm skimmed Kyoko's head. Neither noticed.
"Their lives," Birds spelled out, "are in my hands. Unless their lives and wellbeing mean nothing to you, none of you are in any position to protest. It would be wise for you to let me go and not touch me again, you foolish boy."
Gokudera swore, but he released Birds, almost throwing him down.
After straightening his clothes like they were expensive clothes instead of the Kokuyo uniform, Birds smiled. "Now then. I want one of you to give the future Vongola Decimo, Sawada Tsunayoshi-kun here, a real pounding, please. Hard enough to draw blood, understand?"
"You-"
"Of course, it's perfectly alright if you refuse," Birds interrupted smoothly, before Gokudera could explode on him. "We still have four girls, after all – I'm sure as your friends they'd love to take your place in my game and suffer in your stead. What did that one say?"
Birds turned to the screen where the Midori girls were. "Oh, she's a pretty one," he murmured. "Wanted a haircut, didn't she? My dear Didi would just love to help her shorten her hair – with fire."
Like the world's worst magic trick, the twin slinking behind Hotaru brandished a lighter in his spidery hands.
"And girls like matching with their friends, so it can be a four-for-one deal," Birds added, and on the other screen, behind Kyoko and Hana, another lighter was revealed. "I'm sure they'll just scream at the results – the Twins are quite talented."
Gokudera remembered the threat from before, but that didn't stop him from glowering at Birds. "You perverted freak."
"You're sick." Yamamoto glared, and Tsuna had seen him competitive, but never this angry. The anger, though, had something Tsuna recognized in Gokudera and himself – the frustration that he couldn't do anything about it, the helplessness in that they could only watch on a screen instead of doing something, the guilt that it was their fault.
Except Tsuna could do something.
"I'll do it!" The words spilled out, and already he was flinching at the thought of pain, but he wasn't going to take it back. He could take it – a few punches would draw out blood, and that was better than being set on fire. A lot better. "Yamamoto, Gokudera-kun, beat me up!"
It was really touching to Tsuna and meant a lot that both his friends were extremely reluctant to beat him up but given the five second time limit Birds gave them like an impatient kid demanding candy, it wasn't the best.
Before Tsuna repeated his request to beat him until he bled – by far the weirdest request he ever made – Bianchi beat them both to the punch. Literally.
"Lucky for me, getting a free shot in," she muttered, shaking out the hand she had used to punch him in the face. When her brother protested, she shrugged unrepentantly. "You might have forgotten, but I did come all the way here to kill him."
His face throbbed, but – not as much as it could. And if she had really wanted to kill him, or make it hurt, Bianchi had the ability to change things she touched into Poison Cooking.
It suddenly occurred to Tsuna that despite her habit of forcing Poison Cooking on others, Bianchi still had his back just like Gokudera and Yamamoto. That meant a lot to him, a lot more than he might have thought. "Thank you, Bianchi."
Birds, though, broke the moment, and Tsuna could have kicked himself for being stupid, of course he wasn't done. "Please stab Sawada-kun with this knife."
Tsuna was used to seeing kitchen knives. Despite their familiarity he was still of the opinion that those were blades, and therefore dangerous.
This knife was not a kitchen knife. It was a knife meant to stab, one that did not belong in the kitchen.
"Stab him," Birds ordered, and blood began to run down from his nostrils. Tsuna didn't worry for his health – only his own. "All the way through to the hilt. Or . . ."
This time, it was a bottle the twin hitmen held, one with a label. The camera couldn't show the writing on the bottles, but Birds wasn't one to use water to threaten someone with pain.
"Imagine just how much pain and shock those girls will be in," moaned Birds, wiping at the blood with a careless hand. "As they're splashed with sulfuric acid!"
It disgusted Tsuna, the sound he made, this man in general, the situation, all of it, but greater than his disgust was his horror as the bottles, lids unscrewed, dangled at the ready to be thrown over the girls. Haru, speaking with animated hands, and Kyoko, leaning back on the bench, looked like they'd be the ones to be showered with acid, but he didn't think for one moment that it meant Hotaru or Hana would be safe. Hana, who was rolling her shoulder out, and Hotaru, who was frowning like she had just smelt something bad.
He might not have been the smartest person around, but even Tsuna knew what acid would do when it was splashed onto someone.
"Here's to their new lives," the hitman whispered, and the bottles began to tip. "Baptized by water that burns."
"Stop!" Tsuna shouted. "Stab me! With the knife or – or whatever, just stab me! Don't hurt them!"
The bottles stopped, over Kyoko and Haru's heads.
"Tsuna!"
"Tenth!"
Someone, anyone, help them. The girls didn't deserve this, they weren't involved with it. If Gokudera could throw himself between Tsuna and the needles, and Yamamoto could take the injury to his arm, then this –
On the screen, as if his frantic shouting had been heard, Hotaru turned around, brows lightly furrowed in puzzlement. For one second, she stared at the twin killer that had been sent after her and Haru, and he stared back at her with eyes like black buttons, bottle still uncapped and ready to spill its dangerous contents over Haru's head at the slightest movements.
Horror spread across Hotaru's face, and she acted.
"Oh dear," said Birds in a sing-song as Hotaru shoved Haru and rushed the twin. Taken by surprise, Haru lost her balance and fell, out of the immediate splash zone.
The same couldn't be said for Hotaru, who wasn't strong enough to push the hitman back. She did, however, manage to jostle him off balance – and the content of the bottle spilled all over Hotaru's face and front.
Hotaru screamed and the sound, filled with pain and tears and terror, made Tsuna think that being stabbed might have honestly been better.
Haru was having a nightmare.
Never mind the pain from her knees, never mind the lack of sensations that came with actual dreams. Surely this monster in front of her, spindly limbs awkwardly held still like a statue wasn't real. Surely Hotaru wasn't on her knees, hands wrapped around her face, moaning in pain.
"Run, Haru," Hotaru moaned.
This couldn't be real, Haru's brain thought numbly. The empty bottle that had dropped from the spindly man's spider-like hands rolled towards her, and her eyes caught the label – sulfuric acid.
"You!" shouted a furious voice, and as if her dream had decided to add to the unrealness of it all, a young woman in Chinese clothes – the martial arts kind, not the fancy dress kind – jumped between Hotaru and the monstrous skeleton. "What you've done is absolutely unforgivable!"
She began to fight the skeleton, using movements that belonged in an action movie, the kung-Fu kind. Haru nearly called out for her to be careful, but when the girl flitted like an untouchable butterfly around the man that was, like, twice her height, Haru shut her mouth and decided whoever she was, the mystery girl could handle it pretty well on her own.
Haru started when a hand landed on her shoulder. The hand withdrew immediately, and Haru saw a slightly familiar face with an apologetic look before her.
"Haru-san," said the pervert from last time. His shirt was still unbuttoned indecently. "We need to get you and Hotaru-san out of here."
Hotaru. Hotaru, who had pushed her – probably to get her out of the way. Hotaru, who was still moaning in pain.
Haru pinched herself as the man's eyes landed on the bottle, and he paled. "I'm so dead."
This, Haru realized with the sharp pain, was no dream.
She stopped denying it and dug into her bag for her water bottle. Always stay hydrated, that was important, but right now her water could be used for something more important than quenching thirsts.
Chemistry class safety measures.
"Hotaru-chan!"
Hotaru wouldn't move her hands away from her face, but Haru uncapped her water bottle and began to gently pour the water over her head, trying to get it to her face.
"We need to at least wash some of it off," Haru insisted, and Hotaru didn't say anything verbal per say, but she moaned something and didn't flinch or turn away, which Haru counted as a victory.
Acid. On her face.
Oh god, Haru thought, and she wanted to throw up because she had been told about jerks who threw acid on people's faces for the stupidest reasons like the girl not wanting to date the man. She just never thought it could happen to anyone she knew, let alone Hotaru.
Her hands were shaking badly, but she kept pouring the water until the bottle was empty. And with the water ran out the things that Haru could do. Her brain felt like it had been dipped in bleach – it was blank, and she didn't know what to do. "Hotaru-chan . . ."
What was going to happen? Hotaru was one of the prettiest people she knew, and it was Haru's fault that she was so badly hurt, because she didn't even notice someone that awkward come up behind them and – and –
How did one even make up for something like that?
"We need to get you to the hospital," she said urgently, because she could think about how Hotaru could hate her later, but right now they needed to get help fast. The faster the better. Right?
But Hotaru wouldn't move, and Haru was too scared to touch her, worried she would make it worse. If Hotaru hadn't shoved her aside then it would have been her splashed with acid and she couldn't even remember who this was or what she did to deserve the acid.
The perverted man who still had his shirt not fully buttoned knelt in front of them, and Haru tensed. He probably wasn't with the acid-throwing skeleton guy, but she didn't really know him well enough to say he wasn't the type to do such a thing.
"Hotaru-san," the perverted guy said. "I know about your healing."
Hotaru's shoulders went rigid and her moaning stopped. It was like she had stopped breathing, because the shock had gone straight to her brain and shoved the pain out of the way like a delinquent pushing around other students.
Haru was confused, but it got a reaction from Hotaru, so she decided to hold off on hitting the man on the back of his head with her bag and let him finish speaking.
"And I wanted to tell you that it's okay," he continued. "Haru-san won't ever think any less of you for it, and, well, a lady with a face like yours shouldn't be scarred by some no-name losers like that."
Haru couldn't help it. She looked at 'that' and found the Chinese girl had neatly folded up the man's joints like he was made of paper and knocked him unconscious. At least, Haru hoped he was unconscious. He was still on the ground and his eyes were closed, and Haru decided that he was probably unconscious and stopped paying attention to him. She had more important matters to attend to.
"Hotaru-chan," she said to her more important matters, because whatever this man was saying like he knew her and Hotaru, he was probably saying something important. "If there's anything you can do to stop hurting, then don't hold back because of me."
Hotaru had already gotten hurt because of Haru. If she had to suffer more pain because of Haru . . .
Her hands were covering her face, but there was no hiding the red, bleeding burns where the skin was peeling off from the neck, and the parts of her face Hotaru couldn't hide with her hands. Maybe the water had done something – Haru sure hoped so – but there was damage, and it looked so painful. Her skin was literally peeling off and she had no right to say it, but it looked horrifying.
"Please," Haru begged. Coward that she was, she hoped Hotaru could do something, anything that would make her feel less guilty. It would require something like a miracle, but Haru wished with all her heart that moment.
Hotaru whimpered, but then a miracle occurred. Soft white light began to shine on the places she was hurt – through her fingers, on the burn – and the wounds began to fade away, slowly but surely. It was like someone had taken a magical eraser and began to erase away her injuries.
Haru stared, a part of her distantly aware that her jaw was hanging open in the most unladylike manner ever.
The man sighed in relief as the Chinese girl came in their direction.
"We're sorry we're late," apologized the girl, not at all looking like the same person who just kicked some serious jerk butt. Her hair was braided into two and curled into loops on both sides of her face. Something about her seemed familiar to Haru and she wasn't sure why.
Hotaru was still glowing, and the wounds were still going away. What the two strangers meant by being late, Haru wasn't sure, but that probably meant the skeleton guy wasn't a random psycho who went around hurting people for no reason.
"He's going to kill us," the man whispered, voice still loud enough for them to hear. "Even if she healed herself, he's so going to kill us."
"Who?" Haru asked, as she patted Hotaru's back. Also, Hotaru could heal herself. It was official – she was definitely a princess from a fairy tale, just like Haru had claimed all those years ago. She had so called it.
And Haru was a failure at being a knight. And a friend.
The Chinese girl ignored him and knelt in front of Hotaru. "Hotaru-n – Hotaru-san, can I see your wounds?"
Hotaru didn't budge her hands. The last of the wounds still visible disappeared and the lights dimmed out into nothing, leaving nothing but smooth, pale skin and wet, ruined clothes as the only proof of what had happened.
"Please," the girl requested. "We need to get you into new clothes, too, but I just want to see and make sure you're alright. We don't have much time, Hotaru-san."
Slowly, Hotaru took her hands away. Haru was incredibly relieved to find that her face was fine, the same as it had been before, with just her eyes red-rimmed and filled with tears.
"Hotaru-chan," Haru said, fumbling for her handkerchief. "You're crying – does it still hurt?"
She shook her head slowly, eyes wary as they were fixed on her. "You don't think this is weird?"
Haru blinked. Hotaru was worried. She had also just been attacked – with acid, which looked incredibly painful – and while she was healed, she had just been attacked with acid while protecting Haru.
And she – Tomoe Hotaru, smart girl with the best brains in the world – was worried about what Haru thought after saving her from the acid.
There were so many things wrong with that, and Haru had no idea where to start, so she let her emotions take charge instead of thinking things through. She'd be the first to admit she usually jumped in heart first, head later, but still. Her heart demanded she speak up, and she belted out her thoughts immediately.
"Are you serious!?" she shouted, and Hotaru flinched. Oops, volume control. "Do I think it's weird?! We were just attacked by a skeleton throwing acid and you saved my life and got hurt and that's what you're worried about?!"
Hotaru still looked unsure and Haru really hated that skeleton man.
"You're not the one throwing acid at me for no reason so no! I don't think that's weird!" So there.
Acid. Haru felt sick because that acid had been meant for her, and if Hotaru hadn't noticed first and pushed her out of the way –
She shuddered, and then burst into tears. "I thought you would hate me!"
Hotaru hurried to pull her into a hug. "I'd never hate you."
Her friend always knew the best things to say, but right now it also happened to be one of the worst things, because it made Haru feel even more terrible a human being.
"B-but it was my fault and he threw acid at you – who throws acid at girls, that's such a mean thing to do, like pure evil, who even does that?" Haru wasn't even sure what she was blubbering out, she was just relieved that Hotaru didn't hate her and it was all spilling out.
"Who even," Hotaru repeated in an agreeing tone, rocking her slowly. "It's okay, it's not your fault, and I've had worse."
Okay what.
Haru pulled away and gave her a disbelieving look through her tears. That wasn't even remotely as reassuring as Hotaru had probably intended. It wasn't reassuring at all. It was the exact opposite of reassuring, it disturbed her even further. Haru couldn't think of anything worse than getting acid thrown on her face right now, and sure, her brain was a little scrambled, but acid on face. "What."
Hotaru winced, and it was clear she hadn't meant to say that last bit, which meant Haru was totally going to be grilling her later.
Later.
"Let's go home," Hotaru suggested instead, gesturing to her clothes, wet and destroyed and stained in blood-tinged water, and Haru saw just why the science teacher had given them a long talk about safety measures in lab.
Yes, a change of clothes was absolutely what Hotaru needed right now. Haru glanced around, and the duo were gone. That was a shame, she had been hoping to steal the man's shirt for Hotaru. She did, however, see I-Pin and Lambo, back from wherever they had disappeared to.
"Lambo-chan, I-Pin-chan!" she called, a little relieved that they hadn't been caught up in the acid-throwing attacks as well. She'd nearly forgotten about them, in all the panic. "Let's go back!"
"We can go to my home," Hotaru suggested, holding the destroyed part of her clothes together to preserve her modesty. Haru pulled off her sweater vest and handed it to Hotaru, who took it and nodded in gratitude before pulling it on. "We have cake."
"Cake!" chorused the children.
Hotaru caught her eye and smiled nervously, and Haru nearly cried again. A hero shouldn't have had to look at the friend she just saved with eyes full of fear, like a scared animal flinching at a sudden movement.
"Thank you," she said instead. Hotaru's eyes widened, before they curved in a smile.
Above their heads, the yellow birds chirped.
Birds was the kind who gave orders but didn't fight himself. That was obvious in his slight stature and his use of hostages to force their hand.
With the hostages safe from him, he was powerless. One hit from the Tenth was enough to knock him out cleanly. It was both impressive of the Tenth, and pathetic of Birds.
Speaking of hostages . . .
On the screen to the right, Shamal took down the other hitman without a single outward attack. Normally, Hayato might have been impressed. For all his womanizing ways, Shamal was still talented, and still a goal of sorts for him to reach.
The other screen, though, was the problem. Tomoe had, for some reason, turned and seen the other twin. She pushed Haru out of harm's way, but in the process got attacked herself. I-Pin and the dumb cow's older selves were there, but . . .
Hayato grimaced. Acid attacks were meant to be painful, to say the least, but more than that, it was sometimes to send a message. Back in Italy, a journalist got too deep digging into a local gang, and rather than kill the journalist, she had acid thrown on her face in broad daylight. She survived, but the message, in her burns and scars, had been sent. Until the Vongola stepped in and ended the gang's despotic activities, they continued to sell drugs and kill people in the area without a concern for anyone investigating them.
He didn't really care about Tomoe. She was better than her friends, by virtue of being quiet, not annoying and not a baseball brain, but that was about it. An acquaintance. Not someone he disliked, but not someone he liked, either. Someone he could tolerate.
But he wouldn't have wished that on her.
The Tenth stared at the screen, face as bloodless as the dead. Bianchi, behind her goggles, looked horrified, and Yamamoto –
It was an unfamiliar expression on Yamamoto's face. The idiot was usually smiling happily, lax to a fault. Living life with everything given to him, not knowing what it was like to fight for his life, or to have a light so precious that it meant everything and more.
Right now, there was none of his dumb grins. If Hayato ever saw someone with an expression like that in a dark alley, he would have prepared to fight for his life.
"Hotaru-san," the dumb cow said on screen, voice slightly tinny as it came through on the speakers. "I know about your healing."
Yamamoto's eyes got wider, and the face of someone dangerous turned into a worried, stunned boy.
And, as Hayato saw what happened next, for good reason. The light faded away after a torturously long minute and slowly, Tomoe removed her hands from her face. Her unblemished, unscarred, unhurt face.
In that moment, Hayato realized what Tomoe Hotaru was – why she hadn't been as annoying as everyone else except the Tenth. She was an UMA. One that was scared, now that she'd been revealed. Hayato thought that with her powers she might be a boon to the Vongola, especially in emergencies where the Tenth was injured, but she also became close to the Tenth through the baseball brain and the loud woman.
What happened if they rejected her?
"Are you serious!?" Haru shouted before his imagination could go to dark places. "Do I think it's weird?! We were just attacked by a skeleton throwing acid and you saved my life and got hurt and that's what you're worried about?! You're not the one throwing acid at me for no reason so no! I don't think that's weird!"
Then she burst into tears. "I thought you would hate me!"
Hayato exhaled with relief.
"Wha-" his boss gawked before turning to Reborn. The world's greatest hitman was awake now, and frowning, dark eyes fixed on Tomoe Hotaru. "What was that?"
"I didn't expect that," murmured Reborn. "Yamamoto, that's why your arm healed so quickly back when you fell from the school roof, wasn't it?"
Before the baseball brain could answer, Tomoe tried to appease Haru. "It's okay, it's not your fault, and I've had worse."
There were two reactions to that, at least on their side. The Tenth and Yamamoto looked stricken with concern that she had 'worse'. Worry, for a friend having known pain.
And then, the reaction that he and Reborn and Bianchi had – worry, but for a slightly different reason.
What, exactly, was the 'worse' she had, and why? Because a regular civilian didn't know what 'worse than an acid attack' felt like. A regular civilian didn't have powers like that.
Whatever her backstory was, the UMA that was Tomoe Hotaru had an important secret.
"Didn't expect -" the Tenth sputtered. "Okay, but what about the other hitmen? The girl with the instrument and Birds and the Twins?"
"Prisoners who broke out with Rokudo Mukuro. We didn't make the connection immediately. That's not important right now."
"He's right," said Bianchi before Hayato's boss could protest. "Quit hiding and show yourself."
Hayato readied his bombs, expecting another opponent to fight – maybe Rokudo Mukuro himself, this time.
"Wa-wait," said a weak, child-like voice, and from behind the trees of the overgrown forest in these ruins Futa's small build peeked out. "It's me."
AN: Originally this was probably going to come out with the next FEH Banner I really wanted, but then the amazing w0nd3rl3i/wond3rl3i was like 'hey I drew you fanart for Saturnine' (I paraphrase) and I was like 'I MUST BRAG ABOUT THIS TO EVERYONE I CAN' (that's a direct quote) and that's why there's an early update.
(With that being said, the timing of the fanart that made me update and the content of the chapter is... I feel like Saturnine!Mukuro would probably try to murder Petrichor!Mukuro)
Huinari's favorite sailor soldier: Tomoe Hotaru
Huinari's treatment of said favorite: dump acid on her
Readers: WTF
In my defense, I DID warn readers to not hate me back in the AN for Interlude II (readers: yes, but we thought that was because you said Saturnine wasn't canon).
Reborn and Bianchi are guessing that she gained those powers via experimentation or was experimented on/abused because of those powers. Gokudera thinks that she's an alien and that's why she has those powers. They're all correct, technically.
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TL; DR from Hotaru's POV, who was probably the least worried person involved other than her fear of Haru being scared of her:
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Tsuna: 'oh no I wish something would protect the girls don't let them be hurt!'
Hotaru: *second most powerful being in the solar system and one of its protectors* 'I feel like someone just called – what is that?!' *Pushes Haru out of the way* *exerts Saturn's power*
Twin: *freezes in fear* *grip loosens* *accidentally drops bottle when Hotaru shoves him*
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Hotaru: In hindsight I feel stupid for not trusting Haru to, you know, be Haru.
Haru: You should be. And speaking of which what did you mean by 'I've had worse'?
Hotaru *sweating and averting eyes* umm….
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Sweet Dreams~